'Origins in Progress' by BCXSY at Pantaloon Gallery, Osaka

Design/
19 Nov 2012
/

By Pei-Ru Keh

The 'Origins in Progress' exhibition includes a series of works by Eindhoven-based design duo BCXSY that each incorporate a different traditional craft. Pictured are the 'Origin part III: Contrast' stools and table, and the 'Origin part II: Contrast' fruit bowl

Origin part II: 'Contrast' fruit bowl

The exhibition features some of their best known products, including our personal favourite, the 'Join' screens. Pictured from back: 'Origin part I: Join' screens and 'Origin part II: Balance' rugs. The lighting in the exhibition is soft and cool, filtered by linen curtains

'Origin part I: Join' screens. Despite being designed and produced in Japan, the screens have never been shown on Asian shores

'Origin part II: Balance' rugs. Each piece in the exhibition is accompanied by photographs depicting the designers' inspirations and techniques, such as the rustic Lakiya weaving used for their rugs

Origin part II: 'Balance' rugs

'Coiled' consists of a series of interior accessories that finds inspiration in traditional ceramic vessels. The pieces were made in colaboration with Stockholm-based production platform EiC and a craft collective of women from South Africa

November was a big month for Boaz Cohen and Sayaka Yamamoto. Better known as BCXSY, the Eindhoven-based duo not only unveiled new work at DesignTide Tokyo and put the final touches on a gallery exhibition in Osaka, but somehow also found some time to get married in between.

Congratulations aside, it's the exhibition that really has us talking. Showing at Osaka's Pantaloon gallery, 'Origins in Progress' serves as BCXY's first solo show for a Japanese audience. The exhibition features some of their best known products, including our personal favourite, the 'Join' screens - which, despite being designed and produced in Japan, have never been shown on Asian shores.

Centered around their 'Origins' series, which loyally incorporates a different traditional craft in each piece, the show promises to do BCXSY's thoughtful design provocations due justice by carefully tracing their distinctive ethos from beginning to end. Be it Japanese wood joinery in their delicate screens, rustic Lakiya weaving for their 'Balance' rugs and sturdy Irish carpentry for the 'Contrast' stools, bowls and trays, each piece will be accompanied by photographs, depicting the designers' inspirations and experiences while documenting the progress of each collaboration.

Although the exhibition largely sprung out of a spontaneous meeting with gallery owners Tomoharu Shiiya and Aya Nakano at Dutch Design Week last year, the projected, which was art direted by the pair and commissioned by Inframince Inc. (who also brought in BCXSY's newest work, the 'In Between' collection of hand-blown glass vessels from DesignTide Tokyo also on show,) Cohen and Yamamoto have chosen to present in Osaka for another reason. During the exhibition, the couple will also develop a new product, this time calling on the skills of a bamboo master in Hyogo, to be revealed in Milan next year. In the meantime, a space has been reserved within the gallery to track and document the development of this piece as it unfolds.

If all that just makes you want to get further under the skin of BCXSY, the designers will host two talks on 1 and 22 December to share even more of their processes.